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South Carolina rolls past North Carolina in opener

By Andrew Carter

Raleigh News & Observer

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Despite the loss of its two best defensive players from a season ago, and even amid injuries that decimated its depth, North Carolina throughout the preseason defended its defense. It would be better, the Tar Heels insisted. It would allow fewer game-changing plays, they believed. Just wait and see.

The wait didn’t take long. South Carolina on Thursday night needed three plays and 79 seconds to prove that, maybe, UNC’s defense hasn’t progressed nearly as far as it thought it might have. The Gamecocks’ 65-yard touchdown less than two minutes into the game was the first long scoring play the Tar Heels allowed.

But it wasn’t the last in their 27-10 defeat against sixth-ranked South Carolina here at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Gamecocks gained a quick 17 yards on their first two plays – two runs from Mike Davis, a sophomore running back. And then came Connor Shaw’s 65-yard touchdown pass to Shaq Roland.

On that play, Roland ran free after Shaw executed a play-action fake. There was no safety help in the defensive backfield – just wide open empty space. Roland ran into the void, past UNC cornerback Tim Scott, and caught Shaw’s pass in stride on his way to the end zone.

The play provided a microcosm of the night for the UNC defense, which rarely generated pressure and routinely allowed receivers to run open. It was an appropriate start for the Gamecocks, too, given what followed.

The Tar Heels’ offense eventually settled in and completed a couple of long scoring drives that provided hope – however brief. At the start, though, UNC’s ineffectiveness on offense buoyed South Carolina, which scored on its first three possessions.

The Gamecocks’ settled for a 39-yard field goal on their second drive – a moral victory for the UNC defense – but South Carolina needed just seven plays and a little more than three minutes to score another touchdown just before the end of the first quarter.

That one came on a 29-yard pass from Dylan Thompson, South Carolina’s second quarterback, to Kane Whitehurst. He wasn’t quite as open as Roland was on the Gamecocks’ first touchdown, but Whitehurst still had plenty of room thanks to another Tar Heels’ defensive breakdown.

By then South Carolina led 17-0. At the end of the first quarter, the Gamecocks had outgained UNC 203 yards to 35. South Carolina had nine first downs in the first quarter to the Tar Heels’ one, and the Gamecocks averaged nearly a first down on each one of their 22 plays in the first quarter.

That North Carolina trailed by so much so early wasn’t necessarily a surprise. South Carolina, after all, entered the season with its highest preseason ranking in school history, and plenty of questions surrounded the Tar Heels. What was a surprise, though, was the dominance of South Carolina’s offense.

Defense carried the Gamecocks a season ago and, with the return of All-American defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and four other starters, little figured to change. Offensively, they entered the season with a new starter at running back, and with uncertainty at receiver. But at times, yards and points came easily against the Tar Heels.

And the Tar Heels, at times, matched their defensive struggles of a season ago. Then, in 2012, there were easily identifiable reasons for UNC’s deficiencies. Injuries. The natural difficulties that come with learning a new playbook, in this case a 4-2-5 defense that can be complicated.

UNC players and coaches insisted that now, the Tar Heels better understood the scheme. They were playing faster, coach Larry Fedora said, and that was because they better understood.

That’s not how it looked, though, in the first quarter. Or midway through the third, when UNC appeared as lost defensively as it did at any point last season. The Tar Heels trailed 20-10 then, and with a defensive stop might have had hope of mustering an improbable comeback.

Instead, Davis, South Carolina’s sophomore running back, essentially put the game out of reach. He burst through a hole on the right side, eluded a couple of defenders and then outran the Tar Heels to the end zone. The 75-yard touchdown run gave the Gamecocks a 27-10 lead, and it was an emphatic answer to a seven-minute UNC drive that ended with a field goal.

At that point the Gamecocks had amassed 335 yards, and 140 of them came on the two long touchdown plays. After a 104-minute long weather delay that halted the game with eight minutes and 20 seconds to play, South Carolina, which punted just once before that delay, finished with 406 yards — 228 of them rushing yards.

The Tar Heels’ defense wasn’t solely responsible for the defeat. There was blame to go around – from T.J. Thorpe’s fumbled punt return in the second quarter, to the offense’s inability to score a touchdown after having a 1st-and-goal on the 6 in the third quarter.

UNC’s defensive deficiencies, though, were perhaps the most glaring of the Tar Heels’ problems. Players and coaches spent weeks promising a new beginning, a fresh start. Things would be different. In the first game of a new season, though, familiar problems emerged.